Many businesses have dedicated communications systems that enable computers, servers, printers, facsimile machines and the like to communicate with each other, through a private network, and with remote locations via a telecommunications service provider. Such communications system may be hard wired through, for example, the walls and/or ceilings of a building using communications cables. Typically, these cables contain eight insulated copper wires that are arranged as four differential twisted pairs of wires that may be used to transmit four separate differential signals, although in some cases fiber optic communications cables may be used instead. Individual connector ports such as RJ-45 style modular wall jacks are mounted in offices throughout the building. The cables provide a communications path from the connector ports in offices and other rooms, hallways and common areas of the building (referred to herein as “work area outlets”) to network equipment (e.g., network servers, switches, etc.) that may be located in a computer room. Communications cables from external telecommunication service providers may also terminate within the computer room.
Commercial data center operations also use hard wired communications systems to interconnect hundreds or thousands of servers, routers, memory storage systems and other associated equipment. In these data centers, fiber optic communications cables and/or communications cables that include four differential pairs of insulated copper wires are used to interconnect the servers, routers, memory storage systems and the like.
In both office networks and data center operations, the cables that are connected to end devices may terminate into one or more communications patching systems that may simplify later connectivity changes. Typically, a communications patching system includes a plurality of “patch panels” that are mounted on one or more equipment racks. As is known to those of skill in the art, a “patch panel” refers to an inter-connection device that includes a plurality of connector ports on a front side thereof. Each connector port (e.g., an RJ-45 jack or a fiber optic adapter) is configured to receive a first communications cable that is terminated with a mating connector (e.g., an RJ-45 plug or a fiber optic cable termination). A second cable is terminated into the reverse side of each connector port. With respect to RJ-45 patch panels, the second cable is typically terminated into the reverse side of the patch panel by terminating the eight (or more) conductive wires of the cable into corresponding insulation displacement contacts or other wire connection terminals of the connector port. With respect to fiber optic patch panels, the second cable is typically terminated into the reverse side of the patch panel by inserting a mating connector that terminates the second fiber optic cable into the reverse side of the fiber optic adapter. Herein, a “patch cord” refers to a communications cable that has at least one end which is terminated with a connector (e.g., an RJ-45 plug or a fiber optic cable termination). Each connector port on the patch panel may provide one or more communications paths between a first cable that is plugged into the front side of the connector port and a second cable that is terminated into the reverse side of the connector port. The patching system may optionally include a variety of additional equipment such as rack managers, system managers and other devices that facilitate making and/or tracking patching connections.
The patch cords in communications patching systems may be rearranged frequently. The patch cord interconnections are typically logged in a computer-based log that records changes made to the patch cord connections. The communications cable connections between patch panel ports and work area modular wall jacks are typically determined manually and recorded in the computer-based log. Thus, the computer-based log, if properly maintained, may keep of the end-to-end connections between work area wall jacks and the connector ports on network switches. However, technicians may neglect to update the log each and every time a change is made, and/or may make errors in logging changes. As such, the logs may not be completely accurate.
A variety of systems have been proposed for automatically logging the patch cord connections in a communications patching system, including techniques that use mechanical switches, radio frequency identification and the like. These patching systems typically use special “intelligent” patch panels and management hardware and/or software to detect patch cord insertions/removals at the patch panels and/or to read identifiers located on the patch cords or connector ports to facilitate automatic tracking of the patching connections. Typically, these systems require that all of the patch panels in the communications patching field have these automatic tracking capabilities. However, the available systems generally have one or more shortcomings.